In Flanders Fields

 

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row…”

 

So begins one of the most famous war poems ever written.  The author was John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer stationed in Flanders, France. Tending to the wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres, McCrae was surrounded by death and destruction, but also the graves of the fallen.  Wild poppies grew there in profusion, something that had been noted in previous wars.

On May 2, 1915, a close friend of McCrae’s, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed.  In the hours that followed, McCrae penned the poem we know today.  It was published in the British magazine Punch and was an instant success. McCrae’s poem struck a nerve with all those who had fought or knew someone who had fought.  Accompanied by an illustration of bright red poppies in an edition of Ladies Home Journal, the poem resonated with an American woman, Moina Belle Michael and she resolved to wear a red poppy in remembrance of those who had died in the war.

McCrae himself did not survive the war.  He died in 1918 of pneumonia and meningitis, but his legacy lives on.

You can read more about John McCrae and the history of the poppies here:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/article/remembrance-poppy.htm#americanlegion

 

The library also has a wonderful children’s book entitled In Flanders Fields:  The Story of the Poem by John McCrae by Linda Granfield, illustrated by Janet Wilson.

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae